


From The Damage

by phasha18



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-06 19:34:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13418178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phasha18/pseuds/phasha18
Summary: The BAU has a new team member who has something in common with Spencer Reid. Is she more than what they bargained for? Spencer has known her for a long time but will he remember who she is?Set during season 5.





	1. Chapter 01

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own the cast of Criminal Minds, they belong to creator Jeff Davies. However I do own Sarah Hunter, and her family._

**From The Damage**

**Chapter 01**

  
_FBI: Behavioural Analysis Unit._  
_Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner's Office_  
_Quantico, VA._

SSA Aaron Hotchner walked into his office, closely followed by the newest member of the BAU. Sarah Hunter looked around her new surroundings, sure she had been there when she had applied for the FBI, but she hadn't thought that it would actually happen. Aaron Hotchner motioned for the young girl to close the door behind her and sit down opposite him.

“It says here that you were accepted three years ago and that you denied,” Hotch said almost as soon as she sat down opposite him, he had her file in his hand and was looking over it. “It doesn't say why, so I'm curious why did you apply again?”

“Agent Hotchner, I denied the first time just over six years ago to have my daughter and the most recent time was to have my son,” she paused looking at him and glancing out the window as people walked passed. “You wanted to know why I applied a third time. I'll tell you. I needed a challenge, I know that's not the best reason but it's the truth,”

“Your file also says that you finished high school early,” Hotch raised his eyebrow, was he dealing with another Dr Spencer Reid?

“I was thirteen, enrolled in a school for gifted children since the age of three. I'm smart okay, not crazy smart but still smart,” Sarah answered, not thinking that she would have to say anything else and that he could find out just how smart like everyone else did.

*flashback*  
Thirteen year old Sarah King stood in the middle of the front of the class for gifted students among them was a tall lanky fourteen year old boy. She like him was younger than the rest of their class-mates.

"Take a seat anywhere," the teacher said, and almost immediately the lanky boy raised his hand and motioned for her to sit next to him.

"Spencer," he said quietly, so quietly that it was almost a whisper. Sarah smiled at him as she sat down and then spoke.

"Sarah," came her reply, just as quietly as what he had spoken.  
*end flashback*

“Agent Hotchner, I know that you've read my file. So I know that you've seen that I've done all the training necessary to do this job,” Sarah looked at him wondering what was going through the older man's head.

“Agent Hunter, I am aware of everything that you have accomplished so far which is why I asked for you to join our team,”

Hotch looked at Sarah, he couldn't decide whether to place her straight into the field with the rest of the team or send her in with Penelope Garcia. After studying her file for a few minutes he placed her with Garcia seeing that she was efficient with most aspects of a computer.

  
_Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia_  
_Location: BAU, Quantico, VA._

Penelope Garcia sat glued to her screen she was looking through the unsub's victims accounts to see if any of them had ever crossed paths. The room of the technical analyst was bright and colourful, small child like toys scattered across the desktop to keep the young woman in a cheery state, in her job she needed it. Garcia was quite engrossed in her work, so she didn't notice Hotch standing behind her with Sarah.

“Ahem,” Hotch cleared his voice, startling the technical analyst as she spun around in her swivel chair to face them. “Penelope Garcia, this SSA Sarah Hunter,”

“Hi,” Penelope said, quickly standing up and shaking Sarah's hand before she sat back down again.

“Hey” Sarah answered, smiling at her before she looked at Hotch as if to say 'why are you leaving me here?'.

“Garcia, Sarah here will be shadowing you,” Hotch said quickly, before he walked from the room and left Sarah and Penelope looking at each other awkwardly.

Sarah looked at Penelope's desk and couldn't get over how similar it was to her desk at home and her old office desk. She smiled at her and peered over her shoulder. She recognised some of what she was doing.

"I know what you can do, so why don't you take a seat," Penelope smiled at her, before she turned back to her computer. "Agent Hotchner doesn't know much about you does he?"

"No-one here does..." she paused, as she took up one of the chairs. "I'm taking a rather educated guess and saying that you however do,"

"You're right. I don't want to take any chances," Penelope told her, as she looked the young woman up and down.

"You have nothing to worry about. What can you tell me about..." she started to say as Penelope handed her one of the keyboards. “I know you must think that I'm nuts from doing this,”

“I can understand where you're coming from but why make it so nobody can access your file?” Penelope replied as she quickly typed into the computer and brought up the sealed file. “I can however access it,”

“I did it because nobody needs to know that my own father was killed when I was a child and that I witnessed it, that my mother is the one who looked after me and my brother my entire life,” Sarah paused as some people stood behind them, before Penelope turned around and shook her head at them ushering them away.

Penelope looked at Sarah before she tapped in a password that had allowed her to gain access to the sealed file. Sarah raised her eyebrow at her, no one had know what that password was apart from her.

“I did a little research, your last name hasn't always been Hunter. Your fathers last name was King and your mothers Hancock,” Penelope told her, “You also have daughter Anita, and you were one of the first people on the two thousand and five case that connects to the one that SSA Hotchner is working on,” she paused reaching deeper into the file before Sarah interrupted her.

"You forgot, I also have a son Liam,"


	2. Chapter 02

Chapter 02

  
**Two Weeks Later**   
_Quantico, VA_   
_Behavioural Analysis Unit._

FBI Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner and his team: Supervisory Special Agent's (SSA) Emily Prentiss, Derek Morgan, David Rossi and Doctor Spencer Reid, along with Media Liaison Jennifer Jareau and Technician Penelope Garcia. They were waiting on their newest member Sarah Hunter a young mother of two and a former CSI.

“Sorry I'm late,” Sarah said, opening the door stepping in and closing it behind her before making her way to the table.

“JJ what have we got?” Hotchner questioned, looking to the blonde haired woman as she brought up a series of images on the whiteboard.

“As you know since the killing of the Detective we have been chasing after the unsub, we know that the unsub kills all his victims in the same way.” JJ paused, looking up as they all looked up at the screen to see the fallen detective. “We know that the unsub watches them and plays with them before...” she paused again, this was the hard part describing what the unsub did, as she was interrupted by Reid.

“We know that his playing isn't sexual. He's living out a fantasy,” Reid stated, rather flatly as he looked around the room.“He has evaded us from being further ahead then we initially thought.”

“You want to know what his next move is right?” Sarah questioned as she closed her eyes briefly before she opened them again and looked directly at Agent Hotchner. “It's why you wanted me on the team am I right?”

While Sarah had been a CSI she had been able to quickly survey a room and determine what the perpetrators next move would be. She had done it often enough that the police department had caught close to one hundred of them, but being in BAU was entirely out of her comfort zone. She needed to see the crime-scene first hand and so far Agent Hotchner had left her in the care of Penelope Garcia.

“Hotch, let me take her to the crime scene,” Morgan said, running a hand over his head before he motioned for the young SSA to follow him.

“Morgan,” Hotch started to say but was interrupted by him.

“Hotch, I got this,” Morgan interrupted, as he turned around to face him. "You wanted to see what she was capable of doing, so let her see the crime scene," he finished as Spencer stood up.

"Agent Hotchner," she paused looking at them, how could she tell them that when the unsub had re-started the killings she had been the first CSI to arrive on the scene. "I was on one of the cases in two thousand and five, while I was going through training for here. I was also on the original case,”

All the agents paused and looked at her. JJ's was a look of disbelief, how did she not know what had just been said. Morgan walked from the room with Sarah following close behind. He was annoyed to say the least and he showed it in the way he moved. Hotch shook his head why wasn't it in her file, the file he had looked over so often. Spencer sat trying to make some sense from it, but the logic in his brain said to just ask her. David understood why the case was important to the young girl having gone through the same thing with a twenty year old case the previous year. Emily looked at her as though she was a girl that had things in her life that she wanted to hide.

As Sarah followed Morgan he promptly stopped and looked at her. The look on his face said it all.

"Not here, please not here,"

Confusion and frustration were written all over his face. His forehead crinkled and one eyebrow was raised slightly as he looked at Sarah. Sarah had closed her eyes she was going to have a word with Penelope. On their way out they grabbed their cold weather gear as it had been on the rather chilly side of late.

**One Week earlier**   
_Penelope Garcia's apartment_  
 _SSA Morgan and Technical Analyst Garcia_   
Penelope walked around her apartment pacing back and forth as Derek Morgan sat on the couch and looked at her, catching her eyes every so often as she passed. Penelope sighed and stopped pacing, and sat on the couch next to Derek.

“Baby Girl, something is on your mind,” Derek said looking to the rather jittery woman sitting beside him.

“I can't tell you,” Penelope replied a million thoughts running through her mind. “Derek, you know I like you and all, and I don't like conflict one bit,” she paused for a moment before she continued. “I feel like I'm about to betray someone's confidence either way. I don't know what to do, if I do this they'll probably hate me and argh,”

“Baby Girl, it's okay. What's wrong? Out with it,” Derek said, taking his hand in hers and looking at her.

“The new agent, Sarah Hunter.” taking a deep breath before she continued. “she was on the original case, that you're on now. This unsub is the one that got away,” Penelope said as fast as she could.

"What?" Derek questioned, pulling slightly away from her. "You're not serious are you?" all Penelope could do in response was nod before she got up and walked into her kitchen to make herself a cup of tea and Derek one of coffee.


	3. Chapter 03

**Chapter 03**

  
**One week later**  
 _Quantico, VA_  
 _Behavioural Analysis Unit._  
 _SSA's Morgan and Hunter_  
Derek looked at Sarah, he was still trying process everything that had been said. Why Sarah had said what she said had confused him. He didn't know much about her other than what he had read in her file – the file that Hotch had asked him to look at when he had been trying to find a new team member. An order that Section Chief Director Erin Strauss had given him, without telling him why.

Derek and Sarah walked in silence until they reached one of the black FBI SUV's that they would take to get to the crime-scene. Sarah looked at Derek contemplating on just how much information she should give him considering that she knew what he was going to ask.

“Now what did you want to ask me?” Sarah questioned, as Derek unlocked the SUV for them to both climb in.

“How old where you when you met Reid?” Derek questioned, he had seen the look on the younger FBI agent's face when Sarah had first walked into the bullpen only weeks earlier to meet with Aaron for the first time.

“I was a child, well a teenager. But what does that have to do with the case?” Sarah answered as they climbed into the SUV. “Also how did you know that I knew Spencer?”

“Not a damn thing. I was just curious, also it was the way he looked at you almost as though he had seen a ghost. But what I do want to know is what makes you so sure that you know how this unsub thinks?” Derek started the car and reversed out of the car park before driving out and onto the road. He also turned the heat up so that the car would be warm enough for them.

“When I said I was on the original case I didn't mean as an officer of the law,” she paused glancing at him before she continued to speak. “I was a child, just after my parents split up...I was staying with my father I was six years old. I remember hiding under the bed where I couldn't be seen,”

“You hid under the bed?” Derek raised an eyebrow that was something one of the children had said to them.

“Yes. I hid under the bed where I couldn't be seen. I saw his face and everything he did to my father. My older brother wasn't home that day he was at his friends house. I remember thinking that if he was home he would have been able to save daddy. The man got away, cause I wasn't brave enough to move...my brother came home late that night and I was still under the bed. I'd fallen asleep crying.” Sarah took a deep breath before before she looked out the window and stopped speaking.

“Is that why you're on this case? Because you think the unsub is the one that killed your father?” Derek questioned as he continued to drive to the detectives' house.

"Is there a way to answer that so that you won't bite my head off," she replied, not really wanting to answer the question."I don't think he is, I'm sure it is,"

"How are you sure? You haven't even looked at the crime scene yet." Derek paused running a hand over his head before they pulled up outside the house where the Detective had been killed. "I mean, I know that you've looked at the photo's and the reports,"

"I just have this gut feeling. And somebody once told me that I should always follow my gut," Sarah told him as she looked towards the house, something was eerily familiar about it. When she looked at the house closer she noticed a couple of small things that hadn't been written in the report that couldn't have been picked up on.

Derek looked at her as she walked towards the house and then stopped and walked to the garden and stopped again. He quickly walked up to her and stopped to look where she was looking.

"Did anybody check the roof?"

_Quantico, VA_  
 _Behavioural Analysis Unit._  
Back in the bullpen Spencer was trying to think of why the girl was so familiar to him. Hotch knew what the young man was thinking but didn't think that he had any right to say anything.

"Can I see her file again?" Spencer asked Hotch as he stood up to leave the room.

"In a minute you may," Hotch answered, as he received a phone call from Derek telling him that Sarah had just picked up on something that none of them had picked up on. "Agent Hunter said something about the roof,"

"What do you mean the roof?" David queried with a raised eyebrow as he looked around the room and noticed that Spencer had sat back down again. "They said nothing about it in the reports,"

"And we didn't think to check there," Emily added, before realising that the little girl had said something that no one quite knew what she meant. "Didn't the little girl say something about him looking down on them?"

"She did, but we thought that she meant that he was taller than them," Hotch said as Spencer looked over the notes from the interview with the children to see if he could figure out what they had meant.

_Fredricksburg, VA_  
 _Crime Scene - Detective's house._  
Sarah motioned to the roof, along the lines of the gutter. Noting that parts of it had been bent as though someone had climbed up to sit upon the roof.

"I know that this is going to seem like an odd thing to say, but what if the unsub had used the roof as a way to gain access into the house?" Sarah told him, before she pointed out what she had seen from her experience being a CSI. "Most law enforcement agencies don't think to check for the roof as being a point of access, I've found fingerprints in the strangest places. And from what I heard about the Detective from others was that he was a man who prided himself in the way his house looked on the outside. Notice how there's no ladder marks in the grass?" she paused motioning to the grass below them, before pointing back up to the gutter. "The gutter tells a different story. Walk down the side of the house and tell me if there's anything unusual that you didn't pick up on before,"  
  
"Are you sure about this?" Derek questioned and then thought better of it as he looked on the ground and up at the gutter line. "There's some more indentations on this side,"

Before Sarah and Derek knew it the rest of the team had joined them, curious to know what it was that was so special about Sarah. Hotch and JJ stood back watching the scene unfolding before them. Sarah showing the others the indentations in the gutter line and telling him what they meant.

"How do you know what it means?" Spencer questioned, he was sure there had to be another explanation for the indentations other than the one she was about to give them.

"In the report it said that the little girl said that the man was looking down at them, what if she meant that he was literally looking down on them." Sarah took a deep breath before she continued to speak. "You know that this isn't the first time that he's killed here. Also by me saying that I was on the original case I didn't just mean as a CSI."

"Sarah?" Spencer questioned as something clicked inside his brain.

*Flash back *  
Sarah and Spencer sat eating their lunch together under an old oak tree outside of Sarah's bedroom. They had decided that it had the best place to eat and study without distractions.

"Spence...can I tell you something and you have to promise not to tell anyone," Sarah asked looking at the geeky boy sitting opposite her.

"What is it? You know you can tell me anything," Spencer replied a slight smile on his face which quickly faded when he saw the distant look she had gotten.

"You know how my father's dead?" Spencer nodded waiting for her to continue. "I was six years old, hiding under the bed when it happened. He told me to do it, not my father but the man that did it."

"Where was your brother?"

"He was with his friends...when he came home the only thing he saw was blood in our fathers bedroom. The next thing was me under the bed. But before anything he called the police,” Sarah spoke quietly and quickly as she looked at the older boy who was taking very word in. “What else was I to do?”   
*end flashback*

Spencer blinked as he realised she was the same girl he had met all those years ago. In his eyes she had changed, in her eyes he had changed. But they were still the same on the inside.

"This is the house I lived in when I was little, the house that co-incidentally my father was killed in," she paused shutting her eyes for a split second and then opening them again. "Can you show me where the father where killed?"

"I will," Spencer said before Derek added that he would go with them, as he still wanted to see what she was going to see that they hadn't seen. They may have been the best in their field but there was some things that the BAU couldn't pick up.

"Good," Sarah smiled, before she followed the two of them inside, stopping briefly when she saw that what was once the front bedroom was a living area.

"The parents bedroom is up the back," Derek said, pointing towards the back of the house.

"Question, how would he have looked down on them?"

"The house has a sky-light," pointing upwards before she spoke again. "In the old houses, like this one - they were very rare and didn't have tinting on them. If you look up you can see the birds flying overhead. I'm assuming that the little girl meant that she saw him looking through the light,"

"We need someone to fingerprint the sky-light," Derek told Emily who had followed them in but stayed back a little bit. "Emily?”

“I'm on it,”

Emily dialed the bureau and asked from them to send a forensics team to process everything that Sarah pointed out to them.


	4. Chapter 04

**Chapter 04**

  
_Quantico, VA_  
_Technical Analyst – Penelope Garcia_  
Penelope sat in her office going over ever single report again. Trying to see if she could pick up on anything that would give them a clue as to who the person was.

“Ah ha!” she exclaimed to herself, as she stumbled upon a minor detail. In every case the children had been told to hide under the bed. The mother had always been out of town, only to return when contacted by either the children or the police. Almost as soon as she had said those two words her phone rang. “The all seeing, all knowing Penelope Garcia at your service,”

'Hey baby girl,' Derek said, pausing as Sarah gave him a questioning look. 'We need you to go through and see if they all used the same gardener,'

“I have something else that you all might be interested in, especially Sarah,” Penelope said as she read the file's in front of her again.

'You're on speaker,' Derek said as Penelope started to sift through the files to see if they used the same gardener.

“The children, the girls all have the name Sarah or a variety of...” Garcia paused before she continued. “and the boys the name Anthony,”

'Are you telling us that all the children that were left behind. Their names are Sarah and Anthony?' Sarah questioned, she didn't really want that to be the answer. 'My brother's name is Anthony,'

“That's not all my lovelies,” Penelope said, as she pulled up a recent file that contained what Derek had just asked her about.

  
**One week later.**  
_SSA Sarah Hunter's house_  
_Stafford, VA_  
Sarah lived around a good half hour away from the BAU with her two children Anita and Liam. She also lived with her older brother, Anthony. Anita and Liam were happily playing in their bedroom while Sarah sat in the living room reading up on the case, she couldn't believe how similar the events in the case were to her fathers. It had been a month and they still hadn't caught the guy yet, and that was one thing that was bothering the entire team. They knew what his next move was going to be, but hadn't been able to find anything that connected them other than the names of the children.

"Sarah, why Sarah?" she was talking to herself, and still stuck on the names it wasn't until then that she noticed something else that she was confused on why Reid hadn't picked up on it. Just as she was about to pull out her cell and call him there was a knock on the door.

"Sarah, are you home? Wait I know you're home because I'm assuming that it's your car that sitting in the drive way and not your brother's," a voice said on the opposite side of the door, causing Sarah to raise her eyebrow and wonder who it was.

"Reid! Shut up," another voice interjected, one that she was a little more familiar with. "Sarah, it's Derek, Penelope and Reid could we maybe come in out of the cold?" it was unseasonably cold weather that was starting to produce snow so it was no wonder that they were cold.

"Yeah, hold on." she answered, getting up and then calling out. "Ani, Liam come here a moment please kids," As soon as she said that both children appeared hand in hand and went and sat on the floor in front of the television.

Walking over to the door, she unlocked the dead-bolt and the normal lock before she pulled it open coming face to face with Derek, Penelope and an icicle of Reid. Reid glared at her and then waited for them to be let in, while Penelope grinned giving her a hug before she let herself in past her. Derek shook his head at them and then walked into the house smiling when he saw the two children.

"Spence, would you just come in unless you want to catch a cold," Sarah told him, no one had called him 'Spence' except for her and JJ.

"Mommy who are these people?" Anita questioned, looking up at her mother as she and Spencer walked back into the house. Spencer grumbling that she couldn't be the same Sarah from years ago.

"Hi sweetie, I'm Penelope," Penelope smiled at her, and then added. "You can call me Penny, and this Derek and the man talking with your mom is Spencer," she couldn't help herself as she answered her.

"Sarah is there somewhere that we can talk?" Derek questioned, looking up at her and then back at the two children. "Hi kids, you must be Anita and Liam?" they both nodded looking up at Derek and then at their mother again.

"Hi." Anita smiled before giving Liam a big hug. "Mommy can we show Penny our room?"

"Go ahead, Penelope it's just down the hall and your left," she answered motioning down the hallway before she focused her attention on Derek and Spencer. "Kitchen and dining room are just through there," she pointed behind her, as she walked over to the coffee table and picked up the files. "Did anyone notice what was left behind at the crime scene?”

Spencer and Derek were seated at the kitchen table when she walked in, one of them had put the kettle on to boil and Spencer was still shivering like he'd been stuck outside for hours. Sarah walked into the kitchen and placed the files on the kitchen table. She'd had permission from SSA Hotchner to look over them over the weekend, as she had told him that she had a theory but didn't want to say anything about it until she was certain.

"The charms?" Spencer questioned, looking at her as his teeth chattered.

"Yes, the charms." she answered, she was tempted to prod him to see what he knew about the significance of them.

"From what we can tell from looking in the jewellery boxes of the children and of the parents, they did not have anything that had something missing from it." Spencer paused before he was interrupted by Derek.

"Are you trying to tell us something about the charms?" he queried as she made them cups of coffee.

"Well the charms are over twenty years old," Sarah said, glancing at them as she grabbed the sugar off of the top of the counter.

"How do you know this?" both men said at the same as she finished making the coffee.

"I know this from this picture that I carry everywhere from when I was little," she answered, as she walked over to the refrigerator and pulled off an enlarged photo of her, her brother and parents from before her father was killed. "Look closely at the girls hands,"

"That's you, isn't it?" Spencer questioned, even though he knew it was, why else would she have just said that she carried it everywhere.

"Those charms? They're the same as these ones from each of the crime scenes." Derek said, as a light bulb turned on is his head. "So what you're saying is that he's leaving leaving pieces from his first scene at every subsequent scene?"

“Exactly, see I was given that bracelet for my fifth birthday.” it was then Spencer realised he knew the story of the bracelet and what each of the charms had meant.


	5. Chapter 05

**Chapter 05**

  
_Two days earlier_  
_Quantico, VA_  
_Technical Analyst – Penelope Garcia_  
Sarah decided to pay a visit to Penelope she had a couple questions to ask her and knew that she would let her ask them. She had already spoken with Emily and JJ – both of whom said Penelope was probably the best person to speak to if they needed comforting.

“May I come in?” Sarah questioned as she knocked on the door. She came with coffee, something that she had been told Penelope loved – which she also loved.

“Come on in Sweetie, what can I do for you?” Penelope spun around on her chair in response, Sarah walked into the office slowly and handed her the polystyrene cup full of steaming hot coffee before she pulled her light brown almost blond hair behind her ear.

“I need a favour – look I know I've only been here a few months now, but I was wondering if you were able to pull up an old file,” she paused as Penelope looked up at her, and then at her computer screen.

“What are we looking for?” Penelope poised and ready at the keyboard queried awaiting a response from Sarah.

“Are you able to look up a file from August of nineteen-eighty-eight...more specifically the thirteenth?” Sarah asked, hoping a little that she would be able to find something. She was sure there was something that she couldn't remember from that night.

“What are we looking for?” came Penelope's response as she searched for files from that day. “I need one more thing – case name?”

“Will the person in the case help? It's my father's case – so I'm guessing that it will Alexander King,” Sarah answered, taking a deep breath before she continued. “I just need to see if either my brother or I mentioned something when we were questioned.”

“Pumpkin, let's see what the magic of technology can tell us,” Penelope smiled as she tapped away at the keyboard. “How many times were you and your brother questioned?”

“A lot – we lost count after a while. One of the officers called us up every year to see how we were doing and if we remembered anything else. It was always the same – we told him everything we'd already told him, I was six years old and for a six year old that's hard,”

Penelope sighed, she didn't think she would ever be able to deal with what Sarah had especially after hearing her story. It also made her think that she should apologise to her for telling Derek about her. Penelope opened the file as Aaron walked into her office behind her. As photo's flooded the screen he realised why the case that they were currently on was personal to Sarah.

"I know this is none of my business but did you ever talk with anyone other than the officers?" Penelope asked, as the two of the looked through the file to see if anything stood out.

"Sarah, are you sure you want to do this?" Hotch questioned, after a few seconds of looking at the screen.

"I'm sure, I may have a brilliant mind but I know that after a while I just stopped thinking about it. And Penelope I did talk to other people, we tried two councillors and they just looked at me my like I was crazy. After that I just talked to my brother about it," she answered stopping as she came across something that looked like the most recent crime scenes.

The picture showed everything was almost in it's original place except for one thing - the jewellery box. It had been moved back towards the wall, when usually it was towards the front. You could see where the dust had gathered around the base and the clear mark that had been left when it was moved to the front.

"Garcia, can you pull up the photo's from the most recent victim?" Hotch requested, but Penelope was already on it going through and finding the most recent photo's and pulling them. "Okay, there was a photo of the dresser wasn't there?"

"There," Sarah pointed to a photo that was behind one of the blood splatter on the floor. "How is it possible that, that jewellery box is in the first picture and that one?"

"Are you saying that they're identical?" Sarah simply nodded, she knew she recognised it when they were at the scene.

"They stopped selling it in the early nineteen-nineties too,"

_Two days later_  
_SSA Sarah Hunter's house_  
_Stafford, VA_

Spencer sat in Sarah's kitchen staring at her. He remembered every detail of what she had told him when they had become friends all that time ago. One thing was the bracelet – though he'd only ever seen photo's of it he knew the significance of every charm that belonged on it.

*flash back*  
Sitting on the floor of Sarah's brothers apartment, Spencer looked at Sarah wondering what they were doing there and not at Sarah's house.

“What's with the pictures?” Spencer queried as he looked at the photo's that were laying on the floor in front of them.

“These are pictures of the charm bracelet I had for the year that I was five years old,” Sarah answered before she pointed to the first picture. “My mum and Tony took pictures of them for me whenever I asked,”

“The letters, they stand for you, your mum, dad and brother right?” Spencer took a guess to which Sarah nodded they had represented each of them.

“The rose is because when I was a girl that was my favourite flower, the bear was to represent my teddy bear because I loved him,” Sarah paused before she came to another picture of one of the charms.

“What about that one? Why a beaker?” Spencer questioned, before he took another guess. “You liked science,”

“Yes and no, I was only five years old. The beaker was a joke from Tony, it told me I was his little Spock,” Sarah laughed as her brother walked in the door fresh from a day of studying. “Hey big brother,”

“Hey little sister,”  
*end flash back*

“The first charm that was left at the first scene, the one after your father.” Spencer paused as his memory caught up with his mouth. “they left the rose. You told me fifteen years ago that it was your favourite flower. This family had two rose bushes out the front, and the daughters room had a rose quilt on the bed,” Spencer said causing Derek to look at him with a what the hell look plastered on his face.

“Derek, I met Spencer when I was thirteen,” she smiled before she added. “He knows all about my past I told him that after we became friends. Anyway what else can you remember about the charms, and where they were left behind.”

“The second scene, had the teddy bear. The boys room was full of them,” Derek said as he started to look through the case files, seemingly ignoring what Sarah had just told him.

“We know that the S was left at the last one, but why would he leave an A at each of the other scenes?” Sarah questioned, that was the one thing that puzzled her and she didn't like it. “Also I was going over pictures from my father's case and noticed that at the detective's house they had the same jewellery box as what my mother had and gave to me. The thing is they stopped making them in the early nineties,”

“Do you still have the jewellery box?” Spencer questioned remembering every detail of it from what she had shown him all those years ago.

“I do, why? Do you think there might be something that will help with the case?” Sarah answered, raising an eyebrow – she hadn't really looked in the box but she had kept at the back of her wardrobe void of any jewellery.

“Maybe, can you get it for us?” Spencer asked, as she place mugs of coffee on the table with them. “Sarah, it's important. I know you're trained as a crime scene investigator but you wouldn't have looked at it in the same way as a child,”

“I know that Spence, let me get it,” walking away Sarah noticed that Liam had walked out of his bedroom he had gotten bored watching Penelope and Anita playing. “Hey kiddo, what are you doing?” Sarah smiled, crouching down to his level which had him immediately wrapping his arms around her neck.

“Mummy I wanted to see what you were doing,” Liam answered, as Sarah stood up and walked to the next room which was her bedroom.

Sarah gave Liam a hug and placed him on her bed causing the young boy to jump up and down laughing hysterically. He wanted to see what his mother was getting out of her cupboard, but the laughing had managed to draw the attention of everyone in the house. Anita giggled seeing her brother jumping, Penelope and Derek smiled while Spencer wasn't quite sure what do.

“Can one of you make sure he doesn't jump and end up falling on the floor please?” Sarah questioned, as she walked over to her closet and pulled a step ladder out from leaning against the back wall.

“You actually need a ladder to get it out?” Derek questioned, raising an eyebrow as Penelope watched Liam jumping.

“Yeah, for the simple reason that I put it up the back where you can only reach with a ladder,” she paused turning briefly as she climbed up the ladder and her attention went back to the closet. “And so that this pair would not pull it out,”

Derek looked at her and then at Spencer who was slowly backing out of the room and had managed to back into the wall. Anita had looked at Spencer and grinned, Spencer shut his eyes and then opened them hoping that she would go away.

“Reid, she's six years old, she's not going anywhere,” Derek said, as Sarah uncovered the jewellery box and started back down the ladder.

“I'm not that scary am I?” Anita asked, looking at Spencer and then at Derek as Sarah held on to the box in one and hand scooped Liam up with the other.

“No sweet heart, you're not scary. Spencer here doesn't know what to do around children,” Derek answered as Anita decided to grab his hand.

“Are you going to help mummy?” she questioned, causing Sarah to look at her and shrug when Derek raised his eyebrow at her.

“Let me take that for you,” Spencer held out his hand and she placed the box in it.


	6. Chapter 06

**Chapter 06**

  
_Fredricksburg, VA_   
_Crime Scene - Detective's house._

  
Hotch, David and JJ stood in the detective's house they had decided to go back and see if they couldn't find something else that they hadn't been able to see the first time around. Hotch looked around the room putting himself in the shoes of the children to see what it was that they had seen. They knew that the other siblings were never home, same with their mothers. The youngest child was made to hide under the bed not make a sound.

“The mother and brother aren't home,” David said as JJ walked down the hall a little and looked up.

“The mother said that the daughter and father were having a scheduled daddy, daughter night,” JJ said still looking up at the sky light. “she looked up at the ceiling and saw someone looking down at her before they disappeared again.”

“The next thing they heard was a knock at the door,” Hotch said as he walked towards the door. “the father opens the door, he lets him in. They know each other,”

“But how do they know each other? We've been going over this for weeks and we can't work it out,” David questioned, as Hotch's phone rang.

JJ watched as Aaron answered his phone and walked over to the chest of drawers and looked at the marks on it. They had left the jewellery box there, not knowing if it had really belonged there or not.

“Spencer said to look at the bottom of the jewellery box, it might give us a clue,” Hotch said listening to what Spencer was saying on the other end of the line.

'Sarah still has the jewellery box from the first scene. It wasn't looked at by anyone, and she hasn't looked at it since then either,' Spencer had a tendency to ramble when he was trying to make a point.

“Out with it Reid,” Hotch said impatiently as he picked up the jewellery box and handed it to David.

'The first jewellery box has initials on the base, and according to Sarah they don't belong to anyone in her family. And it's not the maker either,' Spencer rambled as he talked to Hotch.

“Slow down, so what you're saying is that if there are initials on the base that don't belong to the family then that's our link?” he questioned, as David flipped the box upside down with his hand on the lid holding it shut.

'Yes,'

Hotch, Emily, JJ and David looked at the base of the jewellery box to see if any kind of markings had been left behind. David ran his hand over it and found the initials that Spencer had been talking about but they didn't know what they meant.

_Fredricksburg Police Station_  
 _Fredricksburg, VA_  
In Fredricksburg Police Station, they had set up the Administration Conference room with everything that they had on the case and the ones previous. Spencer and Sarah looked at the board before them, and started to add more information to it. What was puzzling everyone was, why had a detective been killed? In the other cases they had been regular working class men.

“We know that the first case had happened in nineteen-eighty-eight, but the next one hadn't happened until nineteen-ninety-seven almost ten years after the first. The victim had also been a male aged in his late thirties early forties. After those two cases nothing happened until two-thousand-and-five and then again in two-thousand-and-six,” Spencer was talking to the team, they had already gone over it multiple times yet he was still trying to work it out.

“Why so close together? What changed his motives?” Hotch questioned, they all wanted answers. It was at that point that Sarah's older brother Anthony arrived.

“Excuse me, but you called?” he knocked on the door and stuck his head around the corner. He was dressed in a dark grey suit and tie. “I'm Detective Anthony King, Sarah's brother,”

“Come in, I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner, SSA's Derek Morgan, David Rossi, Emily Prentiss, JJ Jareau and Dr Spencer Reid,” Hotch introduced them all, before he continued. “Thank you for coming. I understand that you've been looking into this case for a while now,”

_One day earlier_   
_Behavioural Analysis Unit._   
_Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner's Office_   
_Quantico, VA._

Sarah knocked on Aaron's door walking in when he nodded to acknowledge that she was there. She stood for a moment thinking of exactly how to talk to him.

“Sir, I know that I should have said something earlier. But my brother Detective Anthony King, with the Stafford police, has been looking into this case for some time now. And he was wondering if he could speak with you. At the moment he's working on another case that I'm not sure what it is but he said that he would be able to speak with you at a later date. He knows that this kind of thing cannot wait around, but he assures me that the case he's working on and this one are connected yet he doesn't know how,” Sarah rambled, she knew that she had probably made a mistake by walking in and speaking with Aaron the way that she had but she also knew that she had to tell him everything.

“Slow down, now Hunter I'm glad you told me.” Hotch paused looking at her as she stood nervously before him. “You know you should have told me earlier,”

“I really am sorry. Do you have any idea how hard it is to remember everything you have to do of a morning and get two small children ready for the day before you come in to work?” Sarah answered, then thought for a second before she spoke again. “Of course you do, then you'll know that every time I went to say something other things over took what I had to say,”

“Sarah, I understand how hard it is. Did you tell anyone that your brother was going to come in to speak to us?” Hotch questioned, he wasn't sure what was running through her head but he knew that in order to find out he had to ask questions. Sarah just hoped that she wouldn't ramble when she answered.

“That's just it, I kept meaning to but things concerning the case would turn up. When was I supposed to mention it? It's not really something that I can mention in passing.” she said as calmly as she could as she looked to him. “Plus he said that he would give you a courtesy call when he had the time,”

“He did call, said that you were supposed to talk to me about it,” he paused thinking back to the phone call he had, had earlier that morning. “When I said that you hadn't called he sighed and said that you would get to it today,”


	7. Chapter 07

**Chapter 07**

  
**One day later**  
 _Fredricksburg Police Station_  
 _Fredricksburg, VA_  
Hotch introduced each member of the team and then noticed as two small children dressed in parkers, beanies and scarves poked their heads out from behind Anthony. Sarah raised her eyebrow at Anthony before she had a chance to speak Anita ran straight over to Derek and gave him hug. Liam had his arms wrapped firmly around his uncle's leg.

“Sorry Sarah, had to bring them with me. Their baby-sitter called at the last minute and said that she couldn't make it,” Anthony apologised to her and then looked towards Hotch. “Agent Hotchner may I speak with you?”

“Follow me,” Hotch said motioning towards the door. Anthony took Liam's arms and removed them from around his leg and quickly crouched down to him whispering to go to his mother, before he stood up and followed Hotch out of the room.

Aaron and Anthony walked towards the Assistant Chief's office as they were able to use that as well. Once in the room Anthony closed the door behind them, both men took a seat on the chairs in the room. Hotch looked at him wondering what he could possibly tell him that they hadn't already heard.

“Detective King, what were you wanting to speak with me about?” Hotch asked, looking directly at him as he spoke.

“I think that the case's that I'm currently working on may possibly be related to the case that you're here for,” Anthony paused before he spoke again taking a deep breath. “Although I'm in a different office, word gets around. Anyway, currently we have a dozen incidents regarding a serial peeping tom. The thing is this man is only looking in on men who have recently separated or divorced,” he wasn't too sure if all of them had children but knew that at least half of them had.

“Are you sure he's only looking at men who have divorced or separated?” Hotch answered to which Anthony simply nodded. “Have any of these men, or have their wives called your station to report anything?”

“A couple of them have, why?” Hotch stood up as a light bulb flashed in his head.

“When you were younger do you remember if your father ever reported anyone looking into your house?” Hotch queried, as he opened the door and motioned for him to follow him again, Anthony didn't have a chance to answer him. “JJ, could you take the two children to get a drink? I need to ask Sarah something.”

“Come on kids, would you like something to snack on?” JJ asked them as she took both children by the hand and led them down the corridor.

“Hotch?” Derek raised his eyebrow at their unit chief.

“Sarah, did your father ever report anyone looking into your house when you were younger?” he paused before continued to ask the next part of his question. “Did your mother ever do that as well?”

Sarah looked at Hotch and then at Anthony and closed her eyes it was then she realised that he had no real clue as to if their parents had ever made the call. Closing her eyes was her way of remembering things as they happened. Spencer knew this, as did her brother she like him (Spencer) was able to recall things in some detail.

“Dad did once, 'Hello, yes I'd like to report a peeping tom outside our house.' that's what he told the police the week before he was killed,” Sarah paused before she spoke again. “Mum did the same thing three days later, said what dad said. They asked her to describe him to them. She said that she couldn't see anything but the white's of his eyes looking back at her.”

“Call Garcia, and the Detective here will give you a list of names that he's had that have had reports of peeping tom's.” Hotch told Derek who obliged and made the phone call.

_Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia_  
 _Quantico, VA_  
Penelope sat in her office she was still sifting through records on each of the cases to see if anything popped out at her when her phone rang. Without thinking she pressed the loudspeaker button so that she could work and talk at the same time.

“You have reached the office of the all knowing one,” she said with a smile in her voice knowing that Derek was on the other end of the line.

“Baby Girl, I need you to cross reference a list of names that I just sent you,” Derek told her before he proceeded to tell her what they were looking for. “Can you narrow that list down to families that have two children,”

“Of course,” Penelope tapped away at her computer and the list was narrowed to 8. “There's eight of them,”

“Good, now can you narrow it down even further, cut out families where it's only boys or only girls,” he told her looking around the room as he put her on loudspeaker.

“Down to four families,” Penelope answered as she looked at the names before her. “What else?”

“Did any of those families have both the mother and the father make a phone call to the police?” Derek questioned as he heard her tapping away at the keyboard.

“Two of them,” Penelope paused as she pulled up each of their information side-by-side. “But only one of them has a daughter named Sarah and a son Anthony,” she paused again. “Please tell me that they're not next,”

“Baby girl, we're not sure, but can you see if the latest victims made similar phone calls?” questioned Derek as Penelope composed herself again and looked for what he asked.

Penelope looked at all of her screens as various things popped up on them. She sifted through the phone records to see if she could find what Derek had requested from her. None of the BAU knew what they would find once Penelope gave them the answers.

“Yes each of them made similar phone calls like the Browns,” Penelope mentioned the Detective's family prompting Sarah to ask.

“Penelope, what's name of the family that's reported the peeping tom?” Sarah questioned, as Derek had put her on speaker phone.

“Uh, the family that reported the peeping tom's is the Grier family,” Penelope answered not waiting before she gave them more information. “They live 23 Stafford Ave, Stafford,”

“Thanks Penelope,” Sarah said as she looked to Hotch who nodded as Derek hung up his phone.

_Fredricksburg Police Station_  
 _Fredricksburg, VA_  
The team looked at one another as JJ walked back into the room with Anita and Liam holding her hands and Anita telling her a story. JJ smiled at Sarah wondering how she was able to manage two of them on her own while she had enough trouble handling her son Henry.

“I've just had a call from the Sheriff of Stafford County he says there's something that you might be interested in seeing,” the Deputy Sheriff said walking up to the door and letting them know of the phone call he'd just received.

“Morgan, Reid and Hunter you will go with Detective King. Prentiss, Rossi and I will continue to go over the notes that we have here,” Hotch told them looking to his team as JJ was still listening to Anita's story. “JJ will keep an eye on the children for you,”

“Wait a minute, what?” Sarah questioned, she knew that she had heard him correctly.

“Mummy go with them, it's your job. And we'll be good for JJ,” Anita said glancing away from JJ and her story telling to talk to her mother.

“Yeah mummy go,” Liam added with a smile as JJ picked up the small boy.

“Sarah go, they'll be fine,” JJ said as the children nodded they were happy to sit with her.

Sarah, Derek, Spencer and Anthony walked out of the building and started on their way back to Stafford, VA to investigate the peeping tom's. Although Sarah was wondering what the Deputy had meant when he had said there was something that they would be interested in seeing.


	8. Chapter 08

**Chapter 08**

  
_Grier Residence_  
_Stafford, VA_  
When Derek, Sarah, Spencer and Anthony arrived at the Grier residence they were met by Anthony's partner. The detective nodded to him and then pointed to the uniformed police officers standing at their car, with a man sitting in the back seat.

“Detective King,” the partner said looking at him as Derek walked over and talked to the officers at the car.

“Detective Robert Jones, these are Agents Spencer Reid and Sarah Hunter with the F.B.I,” Anthony introduced them before Sarah spoke.

“And that's Agent Derek Morgan,” Sarah paused before she and Reid spoke at the same time.

“What can you tell us?”

“About what? The peeping tom?” Detective Jones answered, Spencer nodded as Derek walked back to them.

“Detective, if it's alright with you I'd like to speak with the family. Hunter,” Derek questioned as Anthony and Spencer stood and listened to what Detective Jones had to say, before Spencer joined them with the family.

Sarah looked at the the little boy and then at the older sister and their parents, the boys arms wrapped firmly around his sister. The parents arms around one another.

“Sir, Ma'am I'm Agent Morgan, with the F.B.I and Agent Hunter and Doctor Reid, we'd like to ask you a couple of questions if that's alright with you,” Derek said as Sarah crouched down to the young boy. Spencer stood looking into the house wondering how the peeping tom had seen in.

“Samuel Grier and this is my wife Maria and our children Sarah and Anthony,” Mr Grier said pausing before adding that they may ask them questions.

“What's your name?” the little boy asked Sarah and then Spencer as he look at both of them.''

“My names Sarah, and this is Spencer,” Sarah told him before she asked him a question. “What's yours?”

“Anthony, but my sister Sarah calls me Tony,” the little boy answered before looking up at his mother again.

“Anthony, can you tell me if you've seen the man in the police car before?” Sarah questioned as she pointed to the car.

“I haven't,” the little boy said pausing for a second before he spoke again. “But Sarah has,”

“Sarah, is it true? Have you seen that man before?” Derek questioned as Spencer talked to the parents before he asked permission to go into the house.

“I think so,”

Spencer and Sarah walked into the house being careful not to touch anything as they did so. Looking up Sarah saw a skylight, causing her too look along the length of the ceiling. As they were walking they pulled out their blue gloves.

“What is it?” Spencer questioned before he looked up and saw what she was looking at. “The skylight's. Every house has had them so far,”

“Exactly, where did the parents say that there bedroom was?” Sarah asked, she wanted to see how the layout was.

“The end of the hall to the left,” Spencer answered walking beside her as they walked to the end of the hall. Derek had now made his way into the house after talking a little more with the parents and children.

“The parents said the front door was open when they got home,” Derek said walking behind them and looking at the photo's on the wall. “The mother said she recognised the eyes, and that's when the police were called,”

“She called based on a recognition of the eyes? Will that even fly?” Sarah questioned as she turned slightly to look at Derek.

“I honestly don't think it will,” he replied as Spencer walked into the master bedroom and surveyed it.

“There's something you might want to look at,” Spencer called walking out of the bedroom with a jewellery box in his hands.

“Is anything inside it?” Spencer shook his head he'd already looked inside it before he brought it out to them. “Hand it over, I'd like to ask the parents if they've seen it before,”  
  
Spencer handed the jewellery box to her, Sarah walked out the front of the house to where the parents were still standing talking to the police. She asked Anthony Grier first before asking Sarah and her parents about it. Nobody in the family had ever seen it before. Anthony looked at Sarah, he recognised the jewellery box as being the one that her family had bought all those years before hand. Derek and Spencer walked out of the house joining them before Derek spoke to the parents.

“Sir, Ma'am do you mind if take this?” he questioned as he took the box from Sarah.

“Go ahead,” Mr Grier answered, Derek thanked him and walked over to the SVU opening the back door up and reaching inside for a plastic bag that they kept for just in case situations.

 _Fredricksburg Police Station_  
_Fredricksburg, VA_  
JJ sat in the police conference room with Liam sitting on her lap whilst Anita drew pictures. Hotch watched as JJ sat with the children before thinking to walk out of the room and contact the detective's family to find out if they had, had reported a peeping tom in the days leading up to the death. He didn't feel comfortable asking the chief of police for some reason he felt that it would be best if he asked them himself. He dialed the number and put his phone to his ear listening to the dial tone.

'Hello, this is Adele Fletcher,' she paused briefly as she looked down at her daughter who was sleeping in the chair beside her. 'May I ask who's calling?'

“Mrs Fletcher, it's S.S.A Aaron Hotchner from the FBI,” Hotch said, after she answered he looked around the station and noticed that no one had moved in the time that he had been standing there.

'Agent Hotchner, have you caught the person who killed my husband yet?' she asked looking up and her eyes falling upon a framed photograph of the family.

'Not yet, Ma'am. I have a question to ask that has only just come to our attention,” Hotch stopped taking a breath before he continued. “Did you or your husband ever see anyone looking into the house before hand?”

Mrs Fletcher thought for a moment before she answered. 'There was, Sarah told me she had seen him too,'

“Did you daughter say if he was the same man that killed your husband?” Hotch questioned, as he glanced back into the conference room and saw Anita looking up at him.

'She said that his eyes were different,' she answered as her eyes settled upon her daughter sleeping.

“Thank you ma'am,” Hotch said before bidding farewell to her as David and Emily walked into the conference room, they had gone to get coffee and discuss what they knew.

David and Emily looked at one another as David sat at the table with JJ and the children. Liam had started to close his eyes, according to Anita, Liam always had a nap after he was picked up from pre-school and she was picked up from school.

“Hotch there's an inconsistency with the ages of the children in one of the cases,” David said being careful not to mention anything that might scare the children.

“Anita would you like to come outside with me and wait for your mom? She called a few minutes ago to say that they were on their way back,” Emily said as she held her left hand out for her motioning with her right hand for JJ to join them.  
  
As Emily and JJ led the children outside David motioned for Hotch to join him. Once they were both seated at the table David grabbed one of the files and opened it.

“Look at this, while Emily and I were getting coffee we were discussing the cases and realised that with one of the families,” he David paused as Hotch looked at the file.

“This family had three children,” Hotch said an eyebrow raised, how had they missed that detail.

“Yes, a one year old and twin seven year old's. The seven year olds a boy and a girl, the one year old a boy.” David continued, both men wondering if this would change the case in any way. “In this one the mother had both the baby and the daughter out with her, the daughter is apparently the older of the two.”

“Why is this case different from the rest?” Hotch questioned as Sarah, Spencer and the others filed back into the room. Sarah with Liam on her hip.

“I think I can answer that. Is the third child called Jacob by any chance?” Sarah questioned hoping that this time she was wrong. She had been right this far but this time she really wanted to be wrong about the name of the child.

“How did you know?” David questioned, turning to face them as Hotch did the same thing. It was then he noticed that Derek was holding Anita's hand and Spencer was standing directly behind Sarah.

“Jacob's the name of my half-brother. He lives in Vegas with our Aunt who has custody of him,” Sarah paused handing Liam to JJ again for a moment as she pulled her wallet from her back pocket opening it and pulling out a folded up photograph.

“I'll take the kids to get a drink again, shall I?” JJ questioned, she had a small idea of how hard it was for Sarah to speak about things that she'd rather not mention.

“Thanks JJ. This is when he was around four and a half, he's sixteen now.” Sarah said showing the photo which was of her, Anthony, Jacob and their aunt – their mother's sister. “He was born in nineteen-ninety-four, our aunt adopted him in ninety-seven,”

Spencer stepped forward and looked at the pictures that were spread across the table. He also placed the jewellery box on the table with the pictures he'd had it in his hands the entire time.

“Question, do we have all the jewellery boxes?” Spencer questioned suddenly as something clicked inside his brain. “The initials on the jewellery boxes, none of them are the same.”

“What are you saying Reid?” Hotch questioned as JJ walked back with Anita and Liam, they had wanted to stay close.

“That I need to see them,” Spencer said as both children ran over to Sarah and Anthony. “Sarah we need to see them.”

“Spencer's right we need to see all of them together,”

Hotch nodded and made a call which resulted in them being emailed images of the bottom of each of the jewellery boxes. That was after he had told them what they needed from them.

“The best I can do is pictures,” Hotch told them as he printed them off before handing them to Spencer and Sarah with dates on them.

“Okay, the first one nineteen-eighty-eight,” Sarah laid it on the table as she looked at the images with Anita still wrapped around her leg. Anthony had taken Liam out of the room and was sitting with him in the waiting room. “Nita, can you go with JJ again and sit with Uncle Tony?”

“Okay, mummy,” Anita said quietly letting go of her leg and walking over to JJ.

“Next one nineteen-ninety-seven,” Spencer placed it next to the first picture the initials MI and HN.

“Okay, the next two were two-thousand-and-five and two-thousand-and-six,” Sarah lay the next two pictures side by side with the initials TC and LL.

“It's a name,” Spencer said as he laid the next picture down the one from their most recent scene. The initials HE. Spencer looked over the initials before he spoke rearranging them in his head. “Mitchell, but what does the HN mean?

“John Mitchell,” Sarah paused she knew the name it was a name that she had hated for a long time.

*flash back*  
Sarah sat quietly in her bedroom, reading one of her favourite books. A series of books called 'The Wishing Chair' by Enid Blyton. She also loved her books on maths and at the age of seven and a half was doing eighth grade maths.

“Sare, come on. Mum wants us to meet her new friend,” Anthony held out his hand to his little sister smiling as she put her book down and grabbed her favourite teddy bear and held on tight.

“Do we have to? I miss daddy,” Sarah said looking up at Anthony as she took his hand and stood up.

“Yes we have to, and then we can come back in here and I'll read a story to you. How's that?” Anthony questioned, as they started to walk back but Sarah stopped walking almost as soon as they got to the living room and hid behind him. She nodded silently behind him.

“Kids, I'd like you to meet John,” Sophia King smiled at her children, holding her hand out to Sarah who stayed hidden behind Anthony.

“Mum, Sare misses dad...that's all,” Anthony said pausing before he spoke again. “Hi Sir,”

*end flashback*


	9. Chapter 09

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now we come to the end of From The Damage.

**Chapter 09**

  
_One hour later_  
 _Fredricksburg Police Station_  
 _Fredricksburg, VA_  
“Are you absolutely positive that you can do this?” Hotch questioned, looking at Sarah as they drove to the last known residence of John Mitchell, their unsub.

“Maybe, I honestly don't know,” Sarah answered, looking at him and then out the window. “You know how long it's taken for people to actually believe me when I said that I knew who did it?”

“Sarah, you were six years old. Back then no one thought that a six year old would tell them the truth,” Emily said, speaking up for the first time in a little while.

“Emily I told them same thing over and over again and nothing ever changed,” Sarah said getting slightly defensive and only relaxing when Spencer glanced at her. “It also doesn't change the fact that he married my mother, and only started killing again after she threatened to divorce him...”

“Her mother died in the summer of two-thousand-and-five, I read that in the funeral notices of the paper,” Spencer said as his eidetic memory decided to come out to play.

“That's right, but in nineteen-ninety-seven my mother threatened to divorce him. She kicked him out and that night he killed a father of two and fled the country for a month,” Sarah paused as Hotch looked at her. “I realised that every date corresponds with something related to my mother. Which I find highly disturbing. I mean mum loved him, even though she knew that I was terrified of him,”

“You think this is all about your mother?” Emily questioned, looking at the young girl as they sat side by side in the SUV.

“It's either about her or me, the charms that he's been leaving at crime-scenes I was given them for my fifth birthday. Fourteen months before my father was killed, all the charms have meanings.” Sarah said, knowing that they all knew what she was going to say about them as Spencer and Morgan had already re-iterated their conversation about the charms. “I can't tell you why, and I don't know how or why he knows them. I never spoke of them to him,”

“What was he working as when your mother met him?” Emily questioned, looking at the younger women as Hotch continued to drive.

“When she met him he was working in a department store, the one that sold her the jewellery box,” Sarah answered, remembering the day that they had bought it. She was five years old and they had gone to the department store to have a look around to see what they could find. Sarah had thought that the jewellery box was the prettiest thing she had seen. “I knew something was different about him from day one. I didn't like him, I don't know why but there was just something that wasn't right,”

“Young children are greater judges of character than what we sometimes give them credit for. You ask a child to describe to you what they see and they will tell you,” Emily said recalling some of the children that they had dealt with over the years. “What do yours tell you when you ask them questions?”

“The details that we don't think they see. They know when I'm upset even if I hide it,” Sarah replied, thinking of all the times that her daughter had described the look on her face before asking if she was alright.

“Sarah not all of them brushed you off, what was the name of the original Detective on the case? Do you remember?” Spencer questioned, before he thought for a moment and realised just how redundant his question was. “Never mind, you know.”

“Spence, of course I know who he was but he died a couple of years ago from a heart-attack that's why the phone calls stopped,” Sarah answered as Hotch looked in the rear-view mirror. “But to answer your question his name was Detective Jonah Grey,”

_John Mitchell's Residence_  
 _Leavells, VA_  
Once they arrived at the house of John Mitchell, Sarah sat in the SUV for a moment composing herself as she watched the others going inside and checking the outside of the house. Taking a deep breath before she climbed out, she hadn't noticed that Spencer was standing outside waiting for her, it wasn't until she bumped straight into him. Sarah looked up at him, rolled her eyes and then started walking towards the house.

“Sarah...” Spencer said hesitantly grabbing her by the arm.

“What Spence? If you're worried about what I might do, you have every right to be worried,” Sarah told him as she turned her and looked at him, he had always known that she was more than capable of taking care of herself.

“I am, what are you going to do if he's in there? Sarah, from what you said he may not even be in the country at the moment,” Spencer said to her as they both walked towards the house.

“We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Spence, I hate the man okay. The only people who ever believed me were you, Tony and the Detective,” Sarah told him as they stopped short of the front door. “I don't know if I can do this. I've thought about it, every day. Seeing the look on his face when he's finally caught and realises that he has no where to run,” Sarah paused before pulling out her phone and realising that there was one thing that they hadn't done.

Sarah quickly dialled Penelope's number, hoping that the technical analyst would have an idea of where he could be whether he was still in the country or if he had left.

'You've reached the the all seeing one,' Penelope answered, getting ready to start typing away as whoever had called her spoke.

“Penelope, it's Sarah. Can you tell me where John Mitchell is right now?” Sarah questioned hoping that she could do that otherwise Sarah would have to use her own skills.

'Sugar plum you know I can,' Penelope typed at away at her computer to try and track down the current location of their unsub.

As Penelope delved into her computer and used her abilities to track down where John Mitchell was. While she did that Sarah was questioned by the rest of the BAU to find out just what she remembered from when she was a child.

“Sarah, start from the beginning. What can you remember from when you were a child?” Aaron questioned, Sarah shook her head, she needed to make sure that her baby brother was okay first.

“Has anyone called my aunt to see if her and Jacob are okay?” Sarah was concerned about her baby brother, she knew that her own children would be safe with their uncle and their father.

“What's your Aunt's number and I'll call her now?” JJ questioned, as she held her phone in her hand. Sarah told her the number and the older woman dialled it.

“Her names Amanda Hancock,” Sarah told her, her aunt had married and divorced and gone back to her maiden name. Sarah waited for her Aunt to answer the phone before she told them everything that she knew about John Mitchell from when she was a child right up until now. “John Mitchell owned a small store that sold handmade goods when I was a child. I was six years old when my father was murdered by him, yes I did see him do it but no one back then believed me. My brother was sixteen at the time and out with his friends. I remember being told to hide under the bed so that's what I did and how I watched everything that happened,” Sarah took a deep breath pausing before she continued. “It's where Tony found me when he came home that night. He stabbed my father and shot him close range – at the time I didn't know that what he had was called a silencer,”

“Sarah, take a deep breath,” Aaron told her as Derek put his hand on her shoulder, Sarah simply shrugged Derek's hand from her shoulder.

“You wanted to know everything so I'm telling you everything – all the details that are in the original report from nineteen-eighty-eight that I told as a six year old child. John Mitchell told me that if he heard me make a sound that he would kill me too, I kept my mouth shut until I heard him leave. Then all I could do was cry until I fell asleep. You wanted to know his exact words to my father?” Sarah paused closing her eyes as she remembered exactly what had been said. “'Mister King, you couldn't provide for your wife and children, but don't worry I can do that.' He said this while he stabbed him, what he didn't know was that my parents had been working on reconciling they had been apart for eight months and I remember mum saying 'It's okay Sare, mummy and daddy are working things out,' that was three days before he was killed,” Sarah told them before she stopped talking and looked at Reid who was seemed to be remembering being told the short version when he was sixteen. “Every murder since then has happened after my mother or I did something that he didn't like. July eighth, nineteen-ninety-seven my mother threatened to divorce him and gave custody of Jacob to our Aunt until he was sixteen by which stage he was able to decide who he wanted to live with. June twenty-first, two-thousand-and-five my mother died. March third, two-thousand-and-six I denied him access to seeing my children,” Sarah paused again before she continued taking a deep breath. “Every case he killed that night or the following day the thing is he had to know what was coming and I want to know how,”

While JJ had dialed Sarah's aunts number Derek had put Penelope and put her on speaker so that she could hear everything that Sarah had said to see if any of the small details matched with the recent cases. What Penelope found was that in each case John Mitchell had told the father that he couldn't provide for his children.

'Excuse me, it is certain that John Mitchell is the one – the children have all said things similar if not the same as what Sarah said. I can also tell you right now that he's booked for a flight to South Africa that leaves from Shannon Airport in one hour,' Penelope's voice rang out over the speaker as she spoke she was furiously inputting data into her computer to track where he was at that current time. 'He's just used his credit card at the airport convenience store,'

“I'll call the airport and get them to delay the flight as long as they can,” Emily said pulling out her phone as they all made their ways to the vehicles and Aaron asked if one or two of the officers that had accompanied them to the house would stay behind.

The drive to Shannon Airport was quiet except for Spencer questioning Sarah as to why she had never told him that one detail that she had just told everyone else. That detail was that her parents had been looking at getting back together. Sarah didn't answer any of his questions, preferring to stay mum on the situation as she really hadn't wanted to relive it as it was. When they arrived at the airport she wasn't entirely sure what she would do.

Aaron gave the order for the team to depart and approach John Mitchell with caution as they didn't know what he might do now that he was about to be cornered. Within minutes Aaron and the teamed had apprehended Mr Mitchell and he was going to be put away for a long time with the recent murders. Sarah was happy that he was gone and out of her life, she was scared that her younger brother would hate her but knew that it was for the best. Spencer looked at Sarah, the second that Spencer was in her reach she wrapped her arms around him and pulled her close.

“Sarah, it's over,” Spencer hugged her as she rested her head on his shoulder. “He can't hurt anyone again,”

“I know...it's just that it's taken since I was six years old...twenty-two years,” Sarah mumbled into his shoulder before ultimately resting her head on his shoulder. “You've always been there,”

“I always will,” Spencer said kissing the side of her head something that he hadn't done in a longtime.

“Thank you Spence,” Sarah smiled, kissing him back before they headed back to the SUV with Derek saying that it was about time.

 


End file.
